A good age to start pension plans

[jIM_Ohio]

Only?! $20K is a lot!!

My guess is you knew pretty well what everyone else was doing, i.e. being "normal" by going deeply into to debt for an education, & decided that must be the thing to do ... instead of really analyzing your particular situation & coming up with a plan to get educated without going into debt.

I don't mean to bust your balls here, after all what's done is done; I just think a student should be able to get an education without going into debt. Not to say it would be easy, as it will take careful planning & probably a lot of working.

Supply and demand
vs ideals of what the world is like for someone working for a living


Yes It would be great if a student could learn their occupation without debt. The cost of that would be any of the following:


The "young" workforce becomes older- meaning that people would be entering workforce in their 30's and not in their 20's. I think some people in the SS office would cringe at what the lower tax base would do to the SS system.

They would rather be collecting 12.4% of 80k than 12.4% of 20k.

Fewer people would finish college. When I was in college, it was tough for me to think about anything for 8 straight years. I took a year off because it was getting to me more than it should have. This means more people earning lower wages.

If "trades" were more of an option (as opposed to a 4 year degree) then people could make decent money, but they would have a glass ceiling of what they could earn or attain as a working professional. An electrician, car mechanic, construction worker and plumber are all valid professions. They make a liveable wage, but most would not make a great wage. Get a 4 year degree and enter any of those fields and its very possible you could earn 6-7 figures managing the projects instead of being the worker bee.


The biggest issue is enforcing this belief on others. Education is important, and its important for anyone, regardless of how they were brought up to have access to better education. Its better IMO for the government to make loans to these people than it is to give them scholarships and grants.

[Beppington]

This Dr. woman ... the-555000-student-loan-burden: Personal Finance News from Yahoo! Finance ... has $555K in student loan debt!!!

YIKES!

Some notable lines from the article:

But as tuitions rise, many people are borrowing heavily to pay their bills. Some no doubt view it as "good debt," because an education can lead to a higher salary. But in practice, student loans are one of the most toxic debts, requiring extreme consumer caution and, as Dr. Bisutti learned, responsibility.

Unlike other kinds of debt, student loans can be particularly hard to wriggle out of. Homeowners who can't make their mortgage payments can hand over the keys to their house to their lender. Credit-card and even gambling debts can be discharged in bankruptcy. But ditching a student loan is virtually impossible, especially once a collection agency gets involved. Although lenders may trim payments, getting fees or principals waived seldom happens.

[Mike75]

Well, goody-goody for Dave Ramsey. He got his degree in 1982. The average cost of tuition has risen by about 9 times since then, and that is in general inflation adjusted dollars. Does Ramsey think he could work nine of those 40-60 hours/week jobs to put himself through school? The cost of tuition has far outstripped the cost of living since 1982. The cost of tuition has even far outstripped the cost of medical care since 1982.

Yes, the cost of tuition has increased to unprecedented levels. These self proclaimed finance gurus have no idea about the realties of life.

[isralexba]

As Kork12 indicated - the earlier you start - the better. the power of compounding is the strongest force in th universe (according to Einstein) - and it will serve you well when you retire.